Many of the world's vital systems have warning lights flashing. How can business make change at a system level to create a more sustainable future? Photograph: Alamy

There is a huge buzz at the moment about system change. The complexity of the sustainability challenges we face means we require a systemic approach if we are to create the change necessary for the future.

Traditionally, academic institutions such as the Academy for Systemic Change at MIT have led the field; NGOs like WWF-UK and Forum for the Future are now modifying their strategic approaches, and businesses like Nike and Unilever are also starting to play their part as their markets and supply chains become ever more complex.

People and organisations are increasingly wondering how to find an accessible guide. I have been working for more than a decade on how to make system change happen and have distilled six strategies for action:

1. Convene people

System change begins and ends with people ready to lead themselves and their organisations. If we take the Sustainable Shipping Initiative as an example, it took three years to find the right people in the right organisations and form this coalition through envisioning and developing innovation work-streams. This has set a strong foundation for its impact in future.

2. Find opportunities

By their nature, systems are complex and we are not always sure where or when they might transform. Scanning what is going on in the world helps find windows of opportunity and points of leverage. Taking a systemic approach means we need to analyse the landscape through mapping, and observe and experience where these opportunities lie. The Sustainable Food Lab, for example, takes participants on learning journeys to places like Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. There they engage in activities across the food system such as cocoa farms, cooperatives, producers, manufactures and eco-tourism initiatives.

3. Align visions to our living systems

Many of our actions do not feel as if they are helping us get close to solving the huge sustainability challenges we face – issues like climate change. We often feel locked into the current way of doing things. Sustainability requires us to take approaches that recognise that our social systems are part of the wider ecological system. We need to create visions and purposes that help us shift to this perspective.

So, in the Finance Innovation Lab they are trying to radically reimagine how the finance system can be transformed. This involves letting go of the prevailing perspectives that have built our current institutions and economy.

4. Experiment system

Change will not happen unless we create something new. In nature, our living systems change through multiple experiments that evolve and shift the world around us. Shell Foundation has been pioneering new social enterprises such as Envirofit which produces affordable cookstoves that create beneficial environmental, health and social impacts. Through constant learning, the Foundation has realised that creating products and services is not all that is needed – instead, we need to experiment with the way one builds markets. This is why it supports the Global Alliance to create a thriving global market for these stoves.

5. Innovation and learning platforms

We spend a lot of time creating new innovations or piloting projects but this in itself will not create a system shift. We need to create platforms that support innovation and learning so we start to accelerate the scale and reach of change. Nike, with USAid and Nasa, have created such a platform called Launch2020, which seeks to accelerate a revolution in sustainable materials through utilising networks, strategies and resources for change.

We need to start connecting different actors and organisations so that radical ideas and innovations can be joined up with each other and help shift systems. Cultivating system change is also about creating the space for the emergence of innovations and active networks of practitioners.

6. Communicate a coherent story

Environmental and social NGO campaigns have tended to focus on what is going wrong by looking to change the polices and parameters of a particular system. To actively open up permission to create change, we need to support the consolidation of change into new narratives for society.

Creative initiatives like the Story of Stuff have started to do this by helping to shift the conversation from the buying of more stuff to having less – and better – stuff. However, we need to get more sophisticated in how we come together to influence the wider cultural conversation. This will influence how we operate in systems such as food, energy and finance.